Contact: Angela Thullen
Program Officer, Communications, PPO
312-280-5286
athullen@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
December 2, 2008

CHICAGO – The American Library Association’s (ALA) Public Programs Office (PPO) has successfully completed an ambitious campaign to raise matching funds for the Cultural Communities Fund (CCF), in response to a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The foundation for CCF has been laid by an impressive list of more than 450 individual and corporate supporters. The five-year endowment campaign is the largest in ALA's history and is one of the most successful endowments campaigns ever attempted by the association.

In 2008, the Public Programs Office received more than $332,000, bringing the campaign total to $1.4 million. “The ALA has risen to this ambitious challenge through the determination and support of our membership,” said Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of ALA. “Their leadership and commitment to bringing quality cultural programs to their communities made it possible for ALA to enthusiastically respond to NEH’s generous challenge grant.”

The success of the campaign to raise matching funds is due in large part to the leadership of ALA’s Public and Cultural Programs Advisory Committee (PCPAC.) Composed of library leaders, the committee served as a staunch advocate for CCF and supported ALA through the fund-raising process by assisting the Public Programs Office in reaching yearly fundraising targets, often personally reaching out to potential donors on behalf of ALA.

Funding from CCF will support the creation of annual professional development opportunities for librarians, turnkey national model programs and a wealth of program planning and presenting resources designed to build and enhance programming capacity at the local level. These activities will strengthen the ability of libraries and librarians to respond to community needs for cultural programming.

CCF is an initiative of the ALA Public Programs Office, which was established in 1990 to foster cultural programming as an integral part of library service in all types of libraries. The unit assists librarians across the country by providing leadership, resources, training, and networking opportunities in order to provide library users of all ages with cultural opportunities. To learn more or to make an online contribution, please visit www.ala.org/ccf.